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Saturday, July 11, 2009

grid quilting mini tutorial

I love stippling, there's no doubt about it. But there is life beyond stippling. (There's even a flickr group to prove it. heehee) I like grid quilting a lot. It's fun, especially on a small piece. I thought I would share a quick tutorial on how I do it...

First, I made a quilt sandwich, using spray adhesive to baste the layers together.

Place a piece of painters tape (or masking tape) on your quilt top on the diagonal. Just eyeball it...no measuring required. The tape shown here is 1" wide. You can use any tape width you would like. On a larger piece, like a baby quilt, 2" wide tape is ideal.

Sew on either side of the tape using a walking foot....

Remove the tape....

Move the tape to the outside of the quilting line. I added another line of tape to help speed up the process. Quilt on the outside of each line of tape. Repeat as many times as necessary. You can re-use the tape between 5-10 times.

Once you are done quilting in one direction, start the process for the other direction. Again, no measuring is required...just eyeball it. Repeat the process as many times as necessary.

And that's it. Easy, right?

I made this little piece for the placemat swap on flickr. (you can see all the wonderful goodies i received in the swap here. jennie is an awesome swap partner!)

I think I might have found a new obsession in maverick stars. They are so much fun!!!

85 comments:

Thanks for the tutorial. It would have made my life so much easier (and straighter)quilts and quilts ago but I am so thankful to have that technique in my bag now. I'm finishing a baby quilt with line after quarter inch line right now and I am so ready to be done. You were right about that one taking tons of thread!

I definitely appreciate this idea. I have used the 1/4 masking tape before and it gets caught in my walking foot. Plus it is hard to lay it down in a straight line and hard to reuse. The blue tape would eliminate all these problems. Thanks for the tute.

I'm definitely going to try this next time I do a grid... the last time I did, it could've been better hehe Btw I've been thinking about using spray adhesive but I'm not 100% sure. Perhaps I just ought to give it a try!

I use painters tape a LOT. When I first began quilting I was a hand quilter. Most of my early quilts were outline stitched -- 1/4 inch from the seam. I used masking tape that is designed for this purpose, so using wider painters tape was just a progression of my first lessons.

As for spray basting...I LOVE THIS STUFF! I used it once, holding my breath and hoping it was the right thing to do, that it didn't ruin my quilt, etc. Now I can't live without it! It's maybe better than sliced bread!

Thanks for your tutorial. I love your placemat. I really need to do some before Christmas for gifts. (I should probably be getting my ideas together and get moving.)

You are an inspiration! I hope you do another quilt-a-long soon as I really want to join. I had too much going on last month (daughter's wedding) to join. But I'm really looking forward to the next one.

Thanks so much for the tutorial. I've got 4 quilt tops finished, but I didn't know how to go any further. I've been saving my pennies to take them to a professional -until now! I think I've got enough confidence now to try an quilt one of them myself. Thanks!!!!

*pounding head on computer desk* DUH! why didnt i think of that? I love your blog like always but good grief it is so nice of you to stop and explain the little things to people like me. I have so many little projects that would love to be re-done now. ha ha haThanks again and your work is AMAZING!

This is one of those lightbulb moments - what an amazing idea, so obvious, but something that I never would have though of myself. I can't believe quite how much time and ink this method will save - thank you so much for posting about it. x

I just had a huge 'I'm an idiot moment' I have wanted to do a grid on the diagonal in the past but couldn't think for the life of me how to mark the lines. I can't believe I was such an airhead. Thanks for the tutorial.

Oh my goodness....so glad I came by today.....I have so many blogs i like to look at and yours is one but it takes me a while to make the rounds....you just made me a happy camper....come by cand check out my giveaway.

thank you for this! I tried to sew straight lines on my 9-patch scrap quilt and ripped it all out (it was that bad). This would have been so helpful! Thank you. Now I'm excited to try it again on another quilt.

I am so excited - my stippling is very iffy - even though I bought my new machine especially to stipple it really does not come out OK ( maybe its me) after a week of undoing a fully stippled single bed quilt I decided never again - I think you have solved my anti stipling dilema- Ta

such a great idea! I love the look of grid quilting (esp on the diagonal) but I never get excited about the idea of marking the grid (because I'm hopeless at sewing a straight line.) But THIS just might do the trick. Thanks!

Could this be any more helpful and timely? I made a quilt and all my lines were wavy and I was so frustrated. Then I started drawing all of them on. I got so tired of it, I only did it in one direction... I'll try this next time!!

My goodness, that's such a simple method! I wish I'd known about it already. I recently tried to use something along the lines of that quilting pattern for my first machine quilt and it was a bit messy.

HELP! If only I know about your method before I worked on this quilt. I used the quilters grid on a baby quilt and now I'm trying to remove the grid and I'm having a hard time with it. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips on how to remove the grid easily? The fibers along the seams are not coming off like the directions said it would.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Your blog! I'm new to quilting, but I chose to do a diagonal grid on my first quilt I gave as a gift. I used a water soluble pencil and that took FOREVER. On top of it all, I'm a perfectionist...is quilting really for me? I love it so far and I will keep your blog close at hand! Thanks for all the pictures of your FUN, AMAZING quilts!

@The Chapman's - I am sooo like you on being the perfectionist. I find this the absolute easiest method I have ever used. Also, there is a "therapy group" for us. I will find the blog and post - they make crazy, wonky blocks - ON PURPOSE! lol I keep this blog close at hand too. Can't wait to hear more from you.